CHP Lags on Computers in Patrol Cars

After pulling a speeder off the freeway, a CHP officer is forced to wait 15 minutes to learn whether the car is stolen or the driver armed and dangerous.

It is a scene repeated often because most California Highway Patrol officers must rely on radios--rather than computers--to receive valuable and potentially life-saving information. As a result, law enforcement officers are left waiting at a critical time: Traffic stops are the most dangerous for the CHP, which makes about 2.5 million stops a year.

Last month, a seemingly routine stop turned deadly: A Granada Hills man failed to pull over for speeding, shot a CHP officer and then shot himself before being killed by pursuing police. Officer Rafael “Ralph” Casillas remains in critical condition at County/USC Medical Center where he is suffering from extensive internal injuries.

The assailant, ex-convict Terry James Parker, had a violent history, including a strikingly similar confrontation with police two years ago in which Parker was shot.

While CHP officials acknowledge that even a computer in his patrol car wouldn’t have saved Casillas, they say the shooting of the 31-year-old officer highlights the increasing need for technology at a time when the most benign situation can turn fatal.

“Should we have them? Absolutely,” said CHP Chief Edward Gomez, who commands the Los Angeles area. “If we could have had them yesterday, I would have liked that.”

Yet even with the best technology and tactics, law enforcement officials say, officers still face deadly risks. The CHP has lost 178 officers since 1929--more law enforcement officers than any agency in the state.

“Who arrested Charles Manson?” said Aaron Read, the lobbyist for the California Assn. of Highway Patrolmen. “We did. Where do bad guys go after a murder or robbery? They hit the road.”

But while police departments in small and large cities throughout the nation are installing computers in their squad cars, as the Los Angeles Police Department did in 1983 and the Sheriff’s Department five years later, state troopers appear to be lagging.

“It’s really a funding issue--that’s what it comes down to across the country,” said Mike Canning of the National Troopers Coalition in Maryland. “In Maryland, we have folks driving cars with 150,000 and 160,000 miles on them. That’s the priority.”

Former Los Angeles Police Chief and state Sen. Ed Davis, who pioneered the city computer system, said the technology should already be working at the CHP.

“Not having the computers in the cars so officers can find out whether the cars they stop are wanted or stolen I think puts every officer into unnecessary dangerous positions,” Davis said. “I think they should all have them now.”

But CHP Commissioner Dwight “Spike” Helmick, chief of the 6,000-officer force, said the agency is just where he wants it to be when it comes to computerization.

“I do not think I’m putting my officers in a perilous situation at all. We are trying to build a system with different technology, much more cutting-edge,” Helmick said. “It’s not as simplistic as it appears.”

About a dozen state police departments, including those in Arizona, Florida and Wisconsin, have computers in their patrol cars. More common are small pilot programs in which computers are being tested in some police cars, such as in Illinois, where state police have equipped 10% of their 1,450-car fleet with computers.

In California, money has been allocated by the Legislature for the last several years to slowly phase in the computers. But CHP officials and others say they struggle to maintain the funding in tight budget years; last year’s allocation was cut, then ultimately restored. The agency also seeks federal grants; the largest--$3 million--was used to equip the entire San Francisco Bay Area fleet with computers last year. The total cost for the system is $60 million, Helmick said.

Currently, the CHP has a pilot program using laptop computers mounted with industrial-strength Velcro in squad cars in Sacramento, San Diego, parts of Los Angeles County and Riverside.

CHP officers working in those areas say the computers are more efficient--reports can be written faster--and arrests for stolen vehicles have increased in all areas.

“I love it,” said CHP Officer Jennifer Pendergast, a spokeswoman for the South Los Angeles-area station in Torrance, which received the computers three years ago. “You’re taking out the middleman, and you don’t have to wait.”

Still, only about a quarter of the 130 CHP stations statewide have the so-called mobile digital computers, with the rest scheduled to receive them well beyond the year 2000, according to CHP officials.

“Slowly, as we get funds from the state and grants, we’re going to expand the program,” said CHP Sgt. Bruce Moncher, who oversees the patrol car computer training. “We’re looking at the busiest offices with the most voice traffic [on the radio system]. It does get awfully frustrating when you’re waiting and waiting and waiting” to reach a dispatcher.

Currently, most CHP officers do not routinely check license plate numbers before stopping motorists unless they have a concern about the car or driver. More often, the officers radio the dispatchers after they receive the driver’s license information.

But the officers who have mobile computers are more likely to punch in license plate numbers before making the traffic stop--a routine practice for the Los Angeles police and sheriff’s departments.

“Primarily, it’s an officer safety issue,” said LAPD Sgt. Jon D’Amico, who oversees the patrol car computer program. “If you can get information back within seconds that you’ve got an armed and dangerous suspect, you’re going to react differently.”

But by all accounts, Casillas and his partner, James Portilla, wouldn’t have learned much about Parker, an ex-convict--even if they had had a computer in their patrol car. A recent license plate check by the CHP on the Chevrolet pickup Parker was driving found that the truck was registered in Arizona to his father, James Parker.

Santa Ana CHP Officer Don Burt, who was shot to death after a seemingly routine traffic stop July 13, also did not have a computer in his patrol car. It remains unclear how much Burt would have learned about the driver of the car from a computer check; he learned through the dispatch system that the driver’s license was suspended.

Nonetheless, CHP officers say they need whatever is available to help them do their jobs, which mostly entail traffic stops. (Until recently, CHP officers’ badges read “traffic officer” rather than “police officer.”)

With the advanced system Helmick says the CHP is developing, officers can tap into the myriad state and national data banks designed exclusively for law enforcement agencies. The officers identify not only stolen vehicles but stolen firearms as well. They know if a suspect is wanted in California or across the country, and they know if the vehicle is wanted in connection with a previous crime. Missing-persons information also is available.

The CHP computers do more than just retrieve information. Officers can type accident and other reports into the machine, eliminating time-consuming--and unprofessional-looking--handwritten copies.

The laptops also allow officers to communicate with each other, without using the dispatcher on the radios.

The LAPD’s computers, which cannot be used for report writing, hit the spotlight five years ago after the police beating of Rodney G. King when copies of racist and sexist messages were released. Since that time, the department continues to randomly monitor electronic messages and to remind officers that the communication is strictly limited to official police business.

In general, LAPD spokesman Lt. Tony Alba said, the computers are used to retrieve information about suspects and cars and to quickly respond to other officers.

But even with the computers, officers return to their radios when they are involved in high-speed pursuits or other high-risk situations. The radio allows them to broadcast information and continue driving in perilous situations.

Nonetheless, LAPD and Sheriff’s Department officials say their officers don’t hesitate to use their terminals.

Said Alba: “It’s a basic precaution. We wouldn’t do without it.”